Data Centre Magazine October, Issue 55 | Page 62

CLOUD & COLOCATION

This phenomenon, often referred to as the Kessler Syndrome, represents a longterm systemic risk in congested orbital zones, where fragmentation from a single collision can generate further debris and increase overall hazard levels.

Taken together, these constraints mean that while orbital data centres are technically conceivable, their deployment at meaningful scale remains economically, operationally and structurally constrained under current conditions. therefore function as a niche but structurally relevant extension of global compute capacity, rather than a direct competitor to Earthbased systems.

Within long-range scenario frameworks, this structure aligns most closely with a“ balanced coexistence” outcome, where both orbital and terrestrial infrastructure operate in parallel, each optimised for distinct categories of demand.

Q. WHERE MIGHT ORBITAL DATA CENTRES FIT INTO THE FUTURE DATA CENTRE SECTOR?

In this model, orbital infrastructure would support workloads where latency is not a critical requirement. This includes AI model training, batch processing and archival storage functions, where compute intensity and energy availability are primary considerations. Terrestrial data centres would continue to serve workloads requiring low latency and real-time responsiveness, including inference applications, user-facing digital services, financial systems and other time-sensitive compute functions.

This results in a layered global compute architecture in which infrastructure placement is determined by workload characteristics rather than geography alone. Orbital systems

Daniel Thorpe Head of EMEA Data Centre Research JLL

62 October 2026